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Ahead of the expected mid-year launch of Apple's fourth-generation iPhone, the expected crop of rumors and leaks have begun to surface. Today, in a report in The Korea Times, an anonymous source at the South Korean wireless carrier KT Telecom is saying that the iPhone 4G could arrive as early as April of this year, equipped with a powerful dual-core processor, improved graphics and video-chat capability... and, unexpectedly, with a removable battery.

Quoting a "high ranking executive" at Apple's exclusive South Korean carrier, the Korea Times report asserts that KT and Apple have been in talks over when the device will come to market. KT reportedly wants to sell the new phone to its large corporate clients in April, in what it calls (somewhat confusingly) a "[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litmus"]litmus test[/ame]." It's claimed that an early introduction to the Korean market will be necessary to counter a rush to Android devices. According to the executive, Apple and KT had reached “a broad consensus to introduce the advanced models as early as possible.” After the "test," regular customers would be able to buy the iPhone 4G in June, which is closer to the usual midsummer timeframe for the release of new iPhone models.

The report also claims that the iPhone 4G will have a dual-core processor as well as an upgraded graphics engine, and sport an improved OLED display. Though no specifics were mentioned in the article, it has often been speculated that the next-generation iPhone would use the new ARM Cortex A9 CPU with a PowerVR SGX545 graphics core. The Korea Times article also flags a removable battery as “highly likely”, as well as video-conferencing capability, which would suggest that the phone would include a front-facing camera. An improved still camera is also supposedly on tap for the new device.